]]>AT&T is now Silicon Valley fuel cell maker Bloom Energy’s largest customer that’s not a utility, according to San Jose Mercury reporter Dana Hull. Hull reports that AT&T more than doubled the size of its deal to buy power from Bloom Energy fuel cells to 17.1 MW.

Bloom makes fuel cells that take fuel (natural gas or biogas) and combine it with oxygen and other chemicals to create an electrochemical reaction that produces electricity. Bloom Energy servers can deliver distributed power on site at a building, and this can have a lower carbon footprint and potentially more electrical reliability than grid power.

AT&T will use the fuel cells to power its operations in California and Connecticut, and AT&T is buying the power from the fuel cells, not buying the fuel cells themselves. Back in January of 2011, Bloom Energy launched its energy-as-a-service product, enabling customers to sign 10-year deals to buy the power from the fuel cells without having to pay the high upfront costs of buying the systems.

AT&T first announced its deal with Bloom back in the Summer of 2011. AT&T told me that it would use the fuel cells to power not just administration offices, but also data centers and facilities that house network equipment. Bloom Energy has begun to bring in a good number of data center customers including Apple, and eBay (and maybe Microsoft, too), and the company launched a data center focus to appeal to these Internet companies.

Ten-year-old Bloom is a prime example of a really capital-intensive cleantech company: it could potentially be a game changer for distributed cleaner power generation, but it has needed lots of capital to scale up manufacturing. If Bloom closes this recently reported round of $150 million, it will have raised at least $800 million over its lifetime. Bloom CFO Bill Kurtz told me earlier this year that Bloom is about “halfway” to breaking even and becoming profitable.

While AT&T is now Bloom Energy’s largest corporate deal, Delaware utility, Delmarva Power & Light, is Bloom’s official largest customer. Delmarva Power & Light has about 500,000 electricity customers and plans to buy 30 MW worth of fuel cells from Bloom.

]]>Updated: AT&T is in the process of developing a home energy management service, which it plans to market to its wireless and wireline customers, according to AT&T Executive Director of Public Policy Jeffery Dygert, who made the remarks on a panel I moderated last week for the Broadband Breakfast Club in Washington, D.C. (see video embed below, and his explanation at about the five-minute mark).

Dygert wouldn’t elaborate on when the service would be available, but it will be included in its Digital Life Project that would create a platform in the home for home security, monitoring, telehealth, energy efficiency and smart grid tools. GigaOM reporter Kevin Fitchard reported more on the Digital Life Project service last week, and he said it will initially launch in Atlanta.

This isn’t the first indication AT&T is getting into home energy and the digital home. Last year, AT&T acquired Xanboo, a decade-old firm that was one of the original home automation players which enables home owners to monitor security, energy consumption and digital media across devices.

Verizon has a similar service it already launched in pilot form in January in New Jersey and has plans to offer commercially to the rest of its customers where its fiber network is available. Update: A Verizon spokesperson tells me the service launched commercially last month. Verizon’s pilot included an energy reading device, a smart thermostat, smart appliance control devices, and a smart power strip, among other applications. Verizon is working with Motorola’s 4Home, as well as Ingersoll-Rand for the security applications.

Telecom companies are looking to offer digital home services, with energy management as just a piece of that. The number of wireless subscribers in the U.S. has plateaued, and phone companies are looking to sell other services and use their networks for more applications.

]]>Nokia Siemens Networks published a blog post Friday called “Wake-up call: Industry collaboration needed to make Beyond 4G networks carry 1000 times more traffic by 2020.” Such a headline is designed to strike fear into the hearts of mobile operators (and NSN customers) everywhere as the demand for mobile broadband outstrips the carriers’ ability to supply it. Even AT&T is prepping for a traffic explosion, not just at the edge of the network, where its wireless base stations sit, but at the core of the network as the world transitions to an all-IP future complete with video.

Over the next five years, our traffic volumes tell us that when we launch LTE each one of our 11 regional cores will have a throughput of two to three terabits, and the national core will have a throughput at least 10 times that. … We are very involved in the solution to that problem. We’ve identified a layered approach to get us there even as we support the launch of our LTE network and get LTE to 90 to 95 percent of our end-users. That to me is the biggest challenge.

However, instead of fear mongering, both stories actually try to discuss some of the technical challenges the industry needs to meet to support the demand for data. The NSN report discussed the need for more spectrum, but also the need to figure out ways to cram more bits into a single megahertz of spectrum, so every airwave can work a little harder. We’ve covered some of the ways this can happen, from carrier aggregation technology to better use of available spectrum to more base stations to help with capacity. NSN goes further and discusses the need for cognitive radios and self-optimizing networks, a concept that major vendors are pushing as networks become more complicated.

Over at AT&T, Prabhu told Fierce Wireless that when the network was carrying mostly voice traffic, managing the network itself was simpler. However, with the switch to data, and soon to all-IP networks in the form of LTE, the way traffic is handled changes. Data traffic becomes harder to anticipate and predict, and can overflow the network or the handset. He said AT&T Labs is working with developers to understand how apps behave on the network (products such as those from Mu Dynamics can help with this) as well as researching things such as algorithmic flow control on the network and better signaling and control of how data flows through the networks. Companies such as ByteMobile, Starrent (acquired by Cisco), Camiant (acquired by Tekelec) and others are providing some of these products. I expect we’ll hear more about this from Cole Brodman, the CMO of T-Mobile USA or Stephen Bye, the CTO of Sprint, when they hit the stage at our Mobilize 2011 conference on Sept. 26 and 27.

However, both of these articles ignore a critical element to help meet mobile broadband demand: Wi-Fi. AT&T is already using Wi-Fi as a means to offload traffic from its cellular network, and Metro PCS may be offloading some 20 percent of its traffic via the technology. But there is still a lot that needs to happen to help integrate Wi-Fi into the cellular experience in a way that’s seamless and encourages the customer to use it and trust it. It’s not surprising that NSN wouldn’t want to focus on the topic, since it’s not an area where it’s selling gear, but I hope that AT&T is keeping its commitment to better Wi-Fi even as it expands capacity and the capability on its core network.

]]>It’s not all war and competition between tech giants Google and Apple. Sometimes, the companies can come together, and the winner each time that happens is invariably the consumer. Today Google brings Google Goggles to the iPhone. Try saying that five times fast.

Goggles is a Labs product that Google introduced back in December of last year for Android devices. As its name implies, it involves the visual spectrum, allowing you to snap a photo using your device’s camera and using that to initiate a search. Now you can both talk to, and show Google’s iPhone app what it is you’re looking for.

Just download Google Mobile App from the App Store for free, and tap the camera button to search using Goggles. Goggles will then highlight elements of the image it recognizes, and you can tap on those areas to find out more. Google has a short video explaining the process:

Before you start taking pictures of your friends and your dog, though, be aware that this technology is still relatively new, hence the Labs designation that Google affixes to all its experimental software. It should work great for recognizing things like landmarks, or DVD and video game artwork, though.

If you don’t have it yet, don’t worry, the update’s being pushed out gradually to all the international App Stores. If you do have it, how’s it working for you? Let us know below.

]]>Over the past three years, ride-sharing startup Zimride has been building a web ecosystem based on trust, and largely Facebook, that’s been helping to reinvent carpooling. With the raising of $1.2 million in seed funding announced this week — from Floodgate, K9 Ventures, and angels including Keith Rabois and Teddy Downey — the company is also looking to develop its mobile application, which Zimride CEO Logan Green tells me in an interview will eventually be available for iPhone, Android, and HTML 5 platforms.

While Green says it’s still too early to talk about what a Zimride mobile application would look like, he notes that the potential for mobile to unlock a new audience for ride sharing will be “absolutely huge.” A mobile app would open up the possibility for different types of trips for a more casual, dynamic user, says Green. For example, the bulk of current Zimride riders are consistent commuters and planners who book pretty far in advance online, but a mobile app could facilitate more on-the-spot, random, last-minute and dynamic trips.

Other new carpooling startups have embraced mobile even more quickly than Zimride. Two-year-old Carticipate bills itself as the first mobile ride-sharing app with a location-based platform. The app can match you and your carpooling needs by where you are at any given time. It might not have the trusted feeling of the college networks and corporations that Zimride relies upon, but it’s simple and intuitive.

Weeels is another ride- and taxi-sharing service that has mobile baked into its core. Conceived by David Mahfouda on a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 2006, the current Weeels mobile app has been under development since the fall of 2009. Carpooling service provider Avego also has already launched its iPhone app, which can dynamically find open seats in carpools.

It’s been the mobile platforms of iPhone and Android that have really enabled unobtrusive, location-based apps to be developed around car data and now ride sharing. Laura Schewel, the co-founder of Virtual Vehicle Company (VEVCo), which builds apps based on cell phone GPS data, told me that Google and Apple’s mobile operating systems enabled VEVCo to make an app that was inexpensive and could pull driver information without the consumers having to add in manual input. That’s the key: Don’t ask users to do any more than they have to.

However, the real heart of how Zimride has been able to bring in big name customers — 55 corporate and university partners and counting — is that they’ve created an ecosystem based on users trusting the networks they use for ride sharing. For example, three companies that work in an office park are comfortable pooling together their users for rides because they’re neighbors. Or college students know the other car poolers will be other students, so there’s a level of trust that the ecosystem provides.

That kind of trust could be harder to manage for mobile-focused startups, given the nature of an app that is looking to organize dynamic, casual trips. Wheels, Carticipate and Avego might have drop-dead simple mobile apps already available to install and use, but the filters and comfort levels don’t seems as reassuring.

Neither, I would guess, are the revenues. Zimride’s Green says the company is break even now, before it’s invested in expansion, and it makes money via subscriptions from its big name customers. It’s hard to see how the other companies will make money at the end of the day from consumers wanting to share their rides.

For more research on where computing meets electric vehicles check out GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

]]>Do you sometimes forget to follow up on important emails, or struggle with adding follow-up reminders to your calendar? FollowUp is a useful, free and easy-to-use service that you can use to automatically send yourself a reminder to follow up.

Once you’ve registered with the service and set your time zone, you simply forward your email to a specially formatted @followup.cc email to specify when the reminder will be sent (at a specific time or on a certain day). For example, to set a reminder three days from now you would add the email address 3d@followup.cc to the email, or to set a reminder for for 4 p.m, you add the email address 4pm@followup.cc. There’s a full explanation of the reminder syntax here (note that adding the followup.cc email address to the “To:” or “Cc:” fields means that everyone who receives the email will also get the reminder — if you add it to the “Bcc:” field, only you’ll get the reminder).

Reminder emails quote the original email, and include a box telling you when the reminded was created. They also contain “snooze” links, which let you quickly re-set the reminder for some time in the future.

Helpfully, you can get a calendar view of all upcoming reminders at the Followup.cc site; clicking on a reminder allows you to edit or delete it:

A settings page is also available at the website, where you can get links for adding reminders to your RSS reader or calendar, and also get a bookmarklet that allows you to set follow-up reminders on web pages.

]]>Okay, we admit it: We’re a little sad today that GigaOM didn’t win a Webby, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from checking out the long list of web video sites and ventures that did.

In fact, web video was one of the big winners of this year’s Webbys, with Hulu winning both the Webby and the People’s Voice Award in the Broadband category, and OK Go receiving the Film & Video Artist of the Year Special Achievement Award. Read on for a complete list of web-video related winners.

Notable video winners in the Webby’s website category:

BEST USE OF VIDEO OR MOVING IMAGE: www.hboimagine.com (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

]]>A New York-based private equity firm’s plans to build out an open nationwide 4G wireless network may simply be a facade aimed at pumping up the value of the spectrum held by its portfolio companies, according to several satellite industry analysts. Harbinger Capital Partners unveiled its LTE network plans last Friday as part of its bid for FCC approval to take over satellite company, SkyTerra. But I, and others, have remained skeptical that the network will ever come to fruition.

“I don’t think we’re going to see an LTE network built by Harbinger,” said John L. Stone, Jr., a director with Near Earth LLC, a boutique investment bank that has a specialty practice focused on satellites. Stone expects Harbinger’s moves with the FCC to result in a sale of spectrum holdings rather than an open 4G network. However, as a condition of its takeover of SkyTerra, the FCC prohibited Harbinger from selling the spectrum to AT&T or Verizon or letting traffic from the nation’s two largest carriers comprise more than 25 percent of its traffic.

Tim Farrar, an analyst at TMF Associates, has similar doubts, surmising in a report published today that Harbinger may in fact be pleased by the objections to the FCC conditions associated with its SkyTerra deal that AT&T has filed. Farrar writes:

On the other hand, given that AT&T is challenging these conditions, it may conceivably be the case that Harbinger has given the FCC the rope to hang itself by: if the conditions are declared illegal, then it would presumably be much harder for the FCC to oppose a sale of the spectrum to AT&T (perhaps even before Harbinger launches commercial service). In the meantime, by declaring its intention to actually build the network, Harbinger has forced AT&T and Verizon to take ATC a lot more seriously than they have done in the last few years, and perhaps even to rethink whether they want to invest in ATC spectrum, something that the leading cellular operators have apparently dismissed on previous occasions.

Right now there are a lot of people throwing water on this deal, and few defending it on the record, which doesn’t inspire confidence. Perhaps Harbinger will release more information on its network partners, or the FCC will go on the record about how impossible it will be for Harbinger to flip its spectrum. Until then, I’m keeping my excitement in check.

Harbinger Capital Partner’s bold plan to build out an open 4G wireless network has more moving parts than the latest OK Go video, and would require a minimum of $6 billion for the terrestrial and satellite infrastructure alone. Based on the expenses and the difficulty of building a cellular network, I’m skeptical that a competitive LTE network will come out of the plan.

Many of our commenters have pointed out the incredible expense involved in building out a terrestrial network, although Harbinger does already have requests for proposals out seeking bids. (If you have one, send it along, please). But beyond the difficulty (and $5 billion cost) of building out a terrestrial network that would cover 100 million people by the end of 2012, Harbinger would have to also fund a satellite expansion that could cost as much as $1 billion to build, launch and operate through 2013. And on top of all that it would have to fend off AT&T and Verizon’s fury at the plan, launch devices with satellite and LTE chips and finally, sign up subscribers. In other words, cue the theme song for “Mission Impossible.”

Harbinger is attempting to build out this network using a block of the airwaves owned by SkyTerra and other companies that have spectrum in what’s known as the MSS band. Companies that own this spectrum want to use their holdings to build a combo satellite and terrestrial network, made possible by a 2003 FCC order that was enacted in the hopes of enabling satellite firms to offer some competition for wireless broadband. It’s been a tough slog for those firms, and the FCC order issued Friday night allowing Harbinger to take complete control over SkyTerra and consolidate some of the MSS spectrum was the first significant breakthrough since the original 2003 order.

While my initial reaction was that this was a mere financial play designed to help Harbinger package up a nice chunk of spectrum and flip it for hedge-fund like profits, there’s that RFP for a network buildout that Harbinger has circulated, and two sources have named Huawei as a potential source of equipment and possibly financing. Huawei has not returned repeated calls for comment.

There’s also a source in the FCC who is adamant that Harbinger can’t flip the spectrum without triggering another review by the agency. Plus Harbinger has to meet stringent conditions related to the buildout, which means that if it wanted to flip the spectrum, it would still have to meet its first milestone of covering 100 million people by Dec. 31, 2012. I’m not completely sold on the flip-proof nature of the FCC conditions after seeing the FCC offer repeated waivers to satellite companies having troubles meeting deadlines or requirements imposed by the original ATC order from 2003. And Harbinger has a track record of betting on spectrum, such as with its investment in Sprint (it holds 75 million shares that it values at $274.5 million ) and its investments in other satellite companies.

But even if we take Harbinger’s plan at face value, the private equity firm needs to raise about $6 billion to simply build out the network, with additional money dedicated to operating it. Maybe its execs can call Craig McCaw for advice.

SkyTerra, meanwhile, would need to launch two satellites, and Harbinger has made multiple arrangements with TerreStar and Inmarsat to pay them for leasing their spectrum. Tim Farrar, a satellite analyst with TMF Associates, says those costs total about $1 billion —$336 million to pay Inmarsat and adjust its equipment for the new combined network, $115 million a year to Inmarsat to lease its spectrum and $24 million as a payment to TerreStar. Harbinger holds a 31 percent stake in TerreStar.

These initial costs are daunting, but Harbinger has already invested at least $2 billion so far in TerreStar and SkyTerra, and is in a high-risk, high-reward business. But the risks are just as big as the costs. First, there’s the issue of finding a partner to build out the network. I, as well as Farrar, have fingered T-Mobile as the likeliest source because the FCC has forbidden AT&T and Verizon from gaining access to more than 25 percent of the MSS spectrum, and because Clearwire-Sprint has such large spectrum holdings. Although perhaps the Harbinger stake in Sprint could be an attempt to influence the cellular operator to provide access to its 3G network.

And that lack of a 3G network could be a big deal. Harbinger says it plans to build out its LTE network pretty quickly (it has to in order to meet the FCC milestones), but until it does, subscribers to its service will only have terrestrial coverage in major markets. Elsewhere they would presumably have satellite coverage. And when it comes to satellite broadband speeds, they’re pretty weak. Plus you can’t use satellite service inside buildings. So unless Harbinger finds a 3G partner, phones or data access in areas where there’s no terrestrial LTE network will suck.

Interestingly, TerreStar has a 3G partnership with AT&T, but I still doubt that model because the service is expensive, the device is clunky and the speeds are slow. However, that brings us to one of the final hurdles Harbinger will have to jump: the angry Bells. AT&T and Verizon both issued statements saying they found the FCC’s decision in this case troubling. I’m waiting to hear back from AT&T as to what TerreStar’s role in the Harbinger network might mean for its partnership with Ma Bell. TerreStar declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement it signed in January with the private equity firm.

Clearly there’s a lot going on here, but building out a new nationwide network has never been easy. We’ll see if Harbinger’s plan for faster mobile broadband with a satellite backup is the real thing or merely another fat pipe dream.